This invention relates to looking up names, and has particular relation to looking up names in preparation for making a telephone call.
Many modem telephones include stored telephone numbers. This feature is particularly useful in wireless telephones, where the user is likely to be away from a telephone book, or even a private list of numbers. Dialing the first few digits is sufficient. Pressing the xe2x80x9cSendxe2x80x9d button on the wireless telephone causes the telephone to search for the number and place the call.
Applicants have noted that it is sometimes undesirable to press the xe2x80x9cSendxe2x80x9d button in order for the telephone to search for the complete number which is the best match the partial number entered. The wrong number may be selected, and a (potentially expensive) phone call will have been begun. Wrong numbers are especially likely when it is unknown how many digits are in the number. A speed-dial number typically has two digits, a local number has seven, a long distance number has ten or eleven, and an international number has even more.
Applicants therefore provide a plurality of lists, each of a different size. Each list includes several phone numbers. Each phone number in a list has a number of digits which is not less than a predetermined minimum number, and not more than a predetermined maximum number. The maximum number is the xe2x80x9csizexe2x80x9d of the list. The minimum and maximum may be the same if desired. When a sequence of digits is entered into the phone, the phone searches for telephone numbers in only one list, namely, the list whose size is equal to the number of digits entered. If no list is that size, then the selected list is the list whose size is the smallest, but still greater than the number of digits entered.
If an additional digit is entered during a search, then the phone compares the new total number of digits with the available lists, and selects a new list if appropriate. If no additional digit is entered, then the search continues until it is complete, and the results are displayed.
Preferably, the phone waits slightly between digits, so that searches will not be begun and then immediately be terminated by the entry of the next digit. Also, the phone can be commanded to include or exclude private numbers, to periodically check to see if more important functions are being inordinately delayed by a lengthy search, and to check for entry of a new digit while the correct list was being selected.